PETA has sent a letter to Michael W. Haley, commissioner of the Department of Corrections in Alabama—the state with the fifth-highest incarceration rate in the country—giving him four good reasons to stop serving meat and other animal products to inmates and to place the entire prison population on a vegan diet.
PETA points out that instituting such a measure would do the following:
* save taxpayers money, because vegan foods are cheaper to purchase, transport, and store
* cut down on aggressive behavior associated with flesh consumption
* save the state the staggering health costs associated with an animal-based diet while serving nutritionally superior vegetarian meals to inmates
* reduce recidivism by providing a deterrent to convicts who are so addicted to meat, they’ll go straight just to avoid having to eat healthy "jailhouse" food
makes alot of since to me.. i would consider meat a luxory. prisoners dont need that. make them eat salads and stirfry..
Not only do prisoners get to indulge in such luxuries as their meat filled meals, but do they not have many other benefits as well? Does a prisoner sentenced to jail time for a crime commited really need or deserve the rights to telephone use and cable television? Should they be allowed the opportunity to work out everyday or more seriously get communal visits from their husbands/wives. Prisoners are given access to huge librarys where many of them study law in hopes to over turn their court cases or return to the courts with an appeal. This not only takes up much of our court system's time but also uses the tax payer's money. Correct me if im wrong but is prison not an establishment and system set forth to punish the criminal and unjust individual? Why are they given rights to have magazines and other publications sent to them, why are they able to have the same luxuries, if not more, than many honest and just individuals have. I think a vegan diet may be a little extreme, but i do think that meals should be limited to what they are composed of. Its not necessary for an inmate to be fed meals that, like mentioned above, are an expense that cuts into the income of someone that has to pay taxes. So maybe finding a less expensive alternative to beef and chicken wouldn't be such a bad idea. I do think its ok for inmates to have their phone calls and watch the news or tv to an extent, only because i dont think cutting them off from the world is something civil to do. But i think it should be a requirement for prisoners to work daily, which many do not do and get by with sitting infront of their tv waiting for the next time their wives are allowed to come visit so they can have that pleasure. Don't starve them, there's no sense in that. Rather have them work and benefit from the skills aquired from that.
im serious... i would rather be in jail than be a bum on the street... do something that can get you 3-5 and work hard while in jail to make something of yourself.... heh. my plan is beggining to unfold.
xSLAMMYx
I don't think that ultra authoritarian reforms will better people in the prison system. I think that Vegan meals is a great idea... People don't seem to realize that prison inmates are still people. It's bad enough that they are thrown into a horribly abrasive social enviornment. Should we take away their rights to literature, media, and socialization outside of prison. I think it would be counterproductive. Making the time one spends in jail more boring is only going to lead to more tension between inmates, more jail-house violence, and socially disconnected ex-convicts. I feel that jail should allow literature to people, so they will at least have a condit to be productive while they are stuck in jail for somany odd years...just a though
No, they shouldn’t force anyone to become a vegetarian anymore then vegetarians should be forced to become carnivores. How would PETA like it if the Department of Corrections in Alabama forced vegetarian inmates to eat meat based diets because they felt they were more cost-effective and healthy? People’s diets aren’t a luxury item, which I am sure PETA would tell you. PETA only wants to provide coercion vegetarianism for its own self-serving agenda. Do you really think PETA cares about prisoner rights or the prison system? Of course not.
And trust me, you aren’t saving a whole lot of money by cutting off meat to prisoners.
Pseudo_Infidel: they shouldn’t force anyone to become a vegetarian anymore then vegetarians should be forced to become carnivores
thats not the same thing.. how can you say eating meat is not a privage.. you are not changing anyone morals buy denying themt the right to eat meat. where as you would be if you were forcing a vegitarian to eat meat. saying that is like saying taking away alchool in prison is like making a sxe kid drink while they are in prison.
Do you really think PETA cares about prisoner rights or the prison system?
HA.. no i know they dont give a shit about prisoner rights when i comes to food. and you shouldnt either.. they are in prison for a reason. to be punished.. they are getin plenty of luxiaries TRUST ME.. Air conditioning tv..
prisoner rights beyond what they have now is bullshit.
and my last question to you ryan is why even try arguing this...it just seems a lil pointless ....
prison doesn't really sound that bad (exluding the anal raping and random violence). I'm totally just kidding around, but I agree prisoners get a whole lot more than they deserve. They get to watch cable, they get 3 meals a day, heat in the winter, a/c in the summer. They had it better than I did in some regards. My old roommate and I lived a whole winter without heat, and we definitely didn't have cable. And a lot of the time we didn't get 3 square meals a day. If I was homeless, I'd probably try to get sent to the pen. Good thing I'm not homeless, I don't really consider myself cut out for prison life.
They'd rather see me in the pen than me and lorenzo rollin' in the benzo.
until you guys have been in prison or have spoken to a prisoner one on one about the 'luxuries' you speak of I would suggest being quiet. and stacy most immates are on a work program, one of which i had to serve with and it ain't no walk in the park.
prisons aren't a problem because they are some club med, the problem is the society that fills those prisons and does nothing to reform the inmates, remember the old man in the shawshank redemption, what did he do after finally getting out after being in there for all that time, he fucking hung himself on the outside bc he had no idea what to do with his life.
i believe its prisoners are sent to jail to be reformed, not to be tortured. if people were denied the rights to the outside world, violence would increase, and people would die. would you want your loved one, even if he had commited a crime, to be killed or analy raped? jail dosnt sound like fun to me.
-rb